thevideogamedatabasefandomcom-20200214-history
The Crystal Cave (Dead Secret)
The Crystal Cave is a set of notes found in the murder mystery VR game, Dead Secret. It is a science fiction horror novella being written by Bobby Sawyer that has been (mostly) proofread by Josie Herrera. Although there are intended to in-universe be at least 19 chapters, only 4 are ever found in the game. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 is found next to Josie's bedroom upstairs (the left-hand room). "Bobby-- Here is your latest chapter all typed up. I think this story is becoming very interesting, and I'm sure you can get it published. I hope you don't mind, but I made a few edits and inserted a few details here and there. I'm looking forward to your next chapter! --Jo" The man had been dead for hours when they found him. He had crawled halfway up Sara Johnson's porch steps before coming to rest just outside the door, his feet dangling off the edge like spaghetti that somebody had cooked too long. Old Sara just about keeled over when she saw him. The man was inked. Weird lines criss-crossed every inch of his skin, like Indian warpaint. Even his eyelids were marked. The tattoos made him look like some African shaman out of National Geographic, except that he was white and was wearing work overalls two sizes too big. Jimmy, the only cop on duty at six in the morning, thought maybe the man had escaped from a chain gang. Jimmy was never the sharpest tool in the shed. Detective Henderson, though, he's as smart as a whip. He had photos taken of the body, all naked and everything. He put the pictures up on his wall at the little station in the middle of town and started moving them around, turning them this way and that, until the tattoo edges started to line up. Took him three days, but he put it together just like a jigsaw puzzle, until the thick lines all connected to the thin lines and the overall shape became clear. Would you believe it? It was a map. When the coroner cut the man open he found his insides were all twisted into the same map. ANd when they sawed into the man's bone they found the map there too, etched into the marrow like rings on a tree stump. Well, that's how we first found our way to the cave. Chapter 8 Chapter 8 is found taped to the back of the piano, after you walk around the boxes to get to the other side of the entryway/living room. The passage continued downward, a steep slope like we were going down a hill. The smooth crystal din't give our feet purchase, and we were trying our best not to slip. It was dark as night, but the light from our helmets reflected strangely from the walls, making the dance blue. Once or twice I thought I saw a flicker in the glass, but it was just a trick of the light. It was cold down here. None of us was wearing a jacket. It dawned on us that we had come totally unprepared. A few hours before we had been whooping and shouting, excited by the crazy angles that cut the crystal entrance out of the cave wall, sure that we'd found something that was going to make us rich. Now we walked in silence. Henderson's face wore a hard, determined look. Johnson's was all suspicion. Jimmy just looked scared, his skin pale and his eyes wide. I opened my mouth to say something to him, the shut it. Either we'd find a way out or we'd die dow here. ll there was to it. It was then that Johnson screamed. Chapter 14 Chapter 14 is found stuck in the bathtub next to the leeches. We rounded the corner and Johnson stopped dead, like he'd been given an electric shock. I about ran into him, cursing before I heard it. From somewhere deep in the darkness, somebody was singing. A woman's voice. It echoed off the crystal walls and then seemed everywhere at once. The song was so faint. I listened hard but couldn't make out the words. The melody was odd, ghost-like, but it was definitely a person singing. Johnson turned and looked at me but didn't say anything. We both understood. Somebody was down there. Somebody who must know the way out. We were saved. We broke into a run then, Johnson cradling his arm as we tried to cross the forest of crystal, scrambling over translucent beams of amethyst big as fallen redwoods. I slipped, hit the smooth surface hard, got up again. We followed the woman's voice deeper and deeper into the cave. Jimmy got to the plateau first. I could tell before I made the rise that something was wrong. In the middle of the mesa was a sort of hatch, like something off the deck of a submarine. It was round and made of steel, and sicking out of it was a metal locking wheel. The woman's song drifted up from it like smoke. I looked back at Johnson as I grasped the handle. He was out of breath, still clutching his wrist where his hand had been, trying to keep the cloth tourniquet tight around the stump. He nodded and I gave it a turn. Chapter 19 Chapter 19 is found on the floor of the loft in the shed out behind the house. This chapter entry seems to indicate that Josie had performed extreme edits to Sawyer's book to make it coherent. and it was brighter and brighter and brighter than the sun but cold so cold cold I could see my breath and it was dark and I heard her voice it was the light and her voice was the light and the cold and she was talking to me like my mother used to talk to me and it was beautiful the most beautiful voice I have eer heard and I wanted to go there go be with her and feel her skin and see her eyes and be her eyes but it was cold I could see my breath and there was an edge to her voice sharp like a knife her voice had another voice under it and it was sharp and I thought maybe that is her real voice and her real voice was cold and so I—hesitated and then I could feel the warmth and there was warmth and it was all over me and I could feel it and I opened my eyes and saw the warmth and it was blood Category:Dead Secret series Category:Dead Secret Category:Items Category:Notes Category:Miscellaneous Items